OKLAHOMA CITY—The Minnesota Wild have a plan to become a consistent contender once the NHL lockout ends, and signing Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to matching 13-year, $98 million contracts was only part of it.

Depending where the salary cap ends up under a new collective bargaining agreement, those marquee free-agent additions will represent at least 20 percent of the Wild’s annual payroll. Simply adding Parise, a 40-goal winger, and Suter, an elite defenseman, to a team that scored the fewest goals in the NHL last season, while allowing the 15th-most, would not be enough to make up the 14-point gap between Minnesota’s 12th-place finish and playoff position. Even if it were, the Wild still would not strike anyone as a budding Stanley Cup contender.

Transforming the Wild from also-rans into frontrunners will require surrounding Parise and Suter with cheap talent—and in the NHL, that means young talent. While the NHL and NHLPA continue to push the 2012-13 season to the brink of destruction, the Wild’s development of that young talent is happening with the AHL’s Houston Aeros.

A 6-4 victory for the Aeros last Friday night in Oklahoma City provided a glimpse into the Wild’s future, a future in which Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund will have to play prominent roles if Minnesota’s hopes for long-term success are to be realized.

“They’re everything that you want,” Aeros coach John Torchetti told Sporting News. “The thing about hockey players is, when you’re in a situation in a game, and you tell them something, and you see it in the game, three shifts later, they made that adjustment—they’re getting it. We’re not trying to do anything fast, we’re trying to do it slow, and walk. You’ve got to walk before you can run, and I think they’re really picking that up.”

It was Coyle who opened the scoring in Friday night’s game, pouncing on a loose puck at the side of the net after a shot by Johan Larsson—the kind of “dirty goal” that Coyle said he gets his share of by “playing down low and creating traffic in front of the net.” A 2010 first-round pick by the San Jose Sharks, Coyle came to the Wild along with Devin Setoguchi and a 2011 first-rounder in the draft-day trade that sent Brent Burns to San Jose.

Wild GM Chuck Fletcher wouldn't do the deal without Coyle—and the Sharks knew what they what they were giving up.

A bronze medalist with Team USA at the 2011 World Junior Championships, Coyle decided to leave Boston University in the middle of last season to focus on hockey full-time, and play with the Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Coyle scored 15 goals with 23 assists in 23 regular-season QMJHL games, then had 15 goals and 19 assists in 17 postseason games.

“Each league is a little different,” said Coyle, who had three goals and 11 assists in 16 games before leaving Boston University. “NCAA, it’s more defensive, I feel like. They’re both great leagues. I chose to go to major junior, I felt that was the path for me, and I feel it’s a little more open, a little more offensive opportunities, stuff like that. Here, it’s a step up, and speed-wise, it’s faster. Getting used to it takes a little bit, but it’s good.”

Coyle’s acclimation to the AHL has been smooth enough that he is Houston’s leading goal scorer, with five. The only Aeros forward with more points is Granlund, who has scored three goals with seven assists in his first seven games in North America. Last season, in his native Finland, the No. 9 pick of the 2010 NHL draft led HIFK Helsinki with 51 points, three more than 382-game NHL veteran Ville Peltonen.

“I know a lot of players who have played here or are playing here,” Granlund said. “It’s been a big help for me. It’s still the same game, not that different. I play the game I know how to play, and just be myself. … If you are skilled enough, you are a good skater, and you know how to play, (the difference from Europe is) not that big a deal.”

One difference that Granlund, like many Europeans, has encountered is the effects of playing on a smaller North American sheet of ice. At 5-10 and 180 pounds, Granlund is not as well equipped for puck battles in tight spaces as the 6-2, 205-pound Coyle, or even the 5-11, 195-pound Parise, but while the 20-year-old builds his speed and strength, he's also finding that his hands can help create open space, both for him and his teammates.

“He’s got all the tools, and he’s just barely touching the edge of what he’s gonna be,” Torchetti said. “He’s just getting used to the time and space, and reading plays, because it’s a little different than Europe, where you have bigger ice. He’s someone that, we want the puck in his hands, and he really works hard to get the puck.”

Granlund, who is five days older than Coyle, scored a goal of his own on Friday, a power-play wrist shot from the high slot to change the momentum after three Oklahoma City goals on five shots drove Houston goalie Matt Hackett from the game. When Granlund and Coyle get to Minnesota, they will be just as important as Parise and Suter for the Wild to change the momentum of an entire franchise.